1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to printers in general and, more particularly, to a direct thermal barcode printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of electronically controlled thermal printers has increased very rapidly over the last few years. In particular, the market for thermal label printers has shown significant improvement with users focusing on utilizing label printing, especially bar-code labeling, to improve capital asset management, inventory control or time and attendance reporting—or to meet corporate or industry mandated labeling requirements—such as automotive AIAG, electronic EIA, or retail UCC/UPC specifications. Label printers typically incorporate a media supply of “peel away” labels adhered to a coated substrate wound in a rolled configuration. The media with the labels is drawn against a printing head, which causes images to be created on the label in response to localized heating of the printing head.
In some prior art printers, calibration or alignment of the print head with respect to the different print media types is complicated and may require the printer to be returned to the factory or a service center. This may result in additional costs to the customer as well as increased “down-time” or availability of the printer. Therefore, a need exists for a printer that may be calibrated or aligned at the customer's location.